Have you used a standing desk?

Stand up for more productivity

January 11, 2018

Standing desks are all the rage, but do they actually … help?

The early results say that yes, standing desks can improve productivity – and are healthy to boot. A recent study at Texas A&M University found that using a standing desk (for reasons unknown) increased productivity by up to a whopping 46%. That study was performed in a call center (a vocation that’s certainly more amenable to being seated over long periods of time than most). From their abstract:

Stand-capable desks have been shown to successfully reduce sedentary behavior in the modern office, but whether their utilization improves cognitive productivity is not known. We compared productivity between stand-capable desk users and traditional seated desk users in a call center environment. Data were collected daily over a continuous 6-month period. We found that increased stand-capable desk use is a likely contributor to increased productivity over traditional seated desk use. These findings indicate that use of stand-capable desks as ergonomic interventions to improve physical health among employees may also positively impact their work productivity.

Large companies have already taken note as well – Google and Facebook are among those that have adopted standing desks as an option.